Friday, October 21, 2011

Widespread Frost, or, Look Thy Last on All Things Lovely...

Thursday night's forecast reads "Warning: Widespread frost from 1 am to 9 am. Low of 31."

I've been covering my tomatoes and herbs at night in an effort to keep things going, but it's time to give up the fight.

So I pick all the tomatoes I can...



...and say a fond goodbye to my summer flowers and herbs.

Goodbye, lovely dianthus, and ever-cheerful marigolds of orange and yellow.




Farewell, bright verbena...


...and staunch Italian parsley (although I hope you may survive a frost or two yet, as you usually do).


Dearest basil, my favourite herb...


...rather than let you wither where you stand, I will pull you up by the roots and make one last batch of glorious pesto. The rest of your leaves will go into the freezer to cheer our hearts through the cold winter months.

Goodbye, little planter garden. See you next spring.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

4 comments:

  1. Oh, so sad! Could you not have transferred the Basil to a pot and kept it going indoors?

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  2. I didn't realize one frost did all of that! Your tomatoes look so yummy!!! The little yellow ones are my favorite! What will you do with those?

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  3. The basil was too big for a pot and had flowered out past pinching back. But still I hate pulling it up every year.

    The frost turned out to be not as extreme as predicted - but it did wither the tomato plants and would definitely have ruined the basil if I had left it in the ground. A few flowers are still going but their foliage is blackened and their days are obviously numbered.

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  4. Aaaawww, that's the way I felt about my little garden. Two months ago!!!

    Kind of cool that you have a longer growing season even though you are far more north.

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